21 negotiating in English games Summary: Games for presentation, intensive practice and freer practice of useful phrases for this most difficult and critical of Business English skills. By: Alex Case |Audience: Teachers|Category: Teaching English  Negotiating well in another language is one of the most difficult skills, especially nowadays when it is often done by distance by videoconference, teleconference or email. It is also one of the most important things to do well, with usually a clear financial penalty for doing it badly. To really master this skill, students need a thorough understanding of the very many phrases they might hear during a negotiation and an ability to show fine shades in meaning in their own contributions. For this, they need to closely examine the exact meaning of a great deal of language, get lots of controlled practice of the same kind of language, and then take part in more realistic but still intensive practice of negotiating to give them a chance to use all that language in context. Games are good for all three of those stages. 21 possibilities are presented below in that order. Games for presenting negotiating language Negotiating language simplest responses game Quite a lot of negotiating language can be divided into two opposing groups of phrases, e.g. starting and ending negotiations, insisting and softening your position, positive and negative, sure and unsure, commenting or getting the other person to comment, formal and informal, direct and indirect, and extending or trying to end a negotiation. I like to present this kind of language with one of my favourite games, which I call the Simplest Reponses Game. Students are given cards which have the names of the two functions from the list above that you are presenting, e.g. a “Starting” card and an “Ending” card each. They race to hold up the right one depending on what they think about the functions of the phrases that they hear the teacher reading out. For example, with the “Insisting” and “Softening position” cards they can lift their cards in response to phrases like “I can’t give way on this” and “Perhaps, but only if…”. They can then label those phrases on a worksheet with the same categories and test each other in pairs or small groups in the same way. You then need to move onto helping them produce such language, perhaps by getting them to brainstorm phrases into subcategories like “setting conditions” and “explaining why you can’t move” and/ or getting them to help each other produce such sentences with hints such as key words. You can also sometimes use this game with language divided into three categories, e.g. “Yes” and “No” with both cards up if the phrase means “Maybe”. Negotiation language list dictations Another thing that you can do with phrases which have something in common is to read out a bunch of them until one student in the class works out what they have in common. As well as useful functions like “Suggesting compromises” and “Apologising”, students can also spot negotiating expressions based on the same metaphor (sport, war and poker being the most common), and phrases with the same word missing. Students can then label the phrases in the same way on the worksheet and test each other in small groups in the same way, before perhaps brainstorming language to fit into other similar categories such as “giving reasons”. Negotiating longer phrases jigsaw game Even more than other kinds of functional language, using negotiating phrases which say exactly what you want to say and have the right level of formality/ indirectness often involves using longer phrases. This game combines presenting short simple phrases with giving students the language they need to extend them to make them more polite and/ or precise in meaning. To prepare a version of this game, start by collecting around 15 to 20 important negotiating phrases which have optional words in the middle such as “This point is (absolutely) crucial”, “According to our (previous) agreement,…” and “Actually, that is (basically) what we were suggesting”. Put the phrases into a three-column table in Word with the optional words and phrases in the middle column. Photocopy and cut up one set per group of two or three students, with the middle column cards divided from the others. Give students just the left-hand and right-hand column words to make basic phrases with (“This point is” + “crucial” etc), then give them the middle cards to check and expand on their answers. They can then use the same cards to prompt those or similar phrases during speaking in a game similar to the key words speaking game below. Negotiation conversations jigsaw texts Write out the whole of a short negotiation such as extending the deadline for a project, then cut it into sections which students should put back together, something like a jigsaw puzzle. One good place to split the dialogue is before useful reactions to what people say such as “Great!” after “In that case, we accept your proposal” and “I’m sorry to hear that” after “I really don’t think we can move on this at all”. Another possibility is in the middle of useful collocations like “long” + “relationship” and “bulk” + “discount”. Photocopy and cut up one copy per group of two or three students. After they have put it in order and checked their answers, they can then try to have similar conversations, perhaps starting while being able to see at least part of the conversation they have just put into order. You can also do this with two dialogues mixed up together, for example one positive negotiation and one negative one, one formal one and one informal one, one telephone and one face-to-face one, or the initial negotiation with people meeting for the first time and a second or final negotiation with people who already know each other. Students should divide the two conversations up as they are putting them in order. Matching negotiating phrases and responses This can be useful for all stages of the negotiation from small talk (“How’s business?” “Not too bad”) to finalising a deal (“Do we have a deal?” “We certainly do!”). However, simple one-to-one matching up like this is too boring and easy, meaning students don’t get involved enough in the activity for the language to stick. The best way round this is to prepare cards with three possible responses to each phrase, such as “I don’t think we can either”, “That’s a shame” and “Perhaps we can show some flexibility then” as replies to “I don’t think we can move on this”. Students work together to try to match up the phrases. After checking their answers, they can move onto testing each other orally and then building whole conversations around some of the exchanges. Negotiations dominoes Another way of dealing with statements/ questions and responses is to prepare cards like dominoes that students can try to make a complete chain out of, with the responses on the left of each domino needing to be put next to the right phrase on the right of each domino. This game can also be played to present and practice the two important language points for negotiating of collocations (“That’s our last” + “offer”) and word formation (“I was expecting a bit more flexib” + “ility”). Actually playing the game of dominoes tends to waste too much time and need too much constant checking by the teacher, so instead nowadays I usually just get students to work together in small groups to make the whole circle out of the dominoes. Games for intensive practice of specific kinds of negotiating language Some of these games are only suitable for one particular language point such as giving reasons, while others could be adapted for one or more – or even almost all – the possible kinds of functional language that could come up in a negotiation. Negotiating coin games Before responding to their partner’s proposal, students have to flip a coin and then respond positively if they get a head or negatively if they get a tail. This continues with every exchange until their reach an agreement. They should still try not to give too much away, only conceding very little when they get a head. This should also work with the sides of the coin meaning “Ask a question” (such as asking for clarification or “How about…?”) and “Make a statement”. You can also do the opposite thing, with students flipping the coin but keeping what they get secret, then trying to get that response from their partner. Some of the games below are basically the same as these games but without a coin. Use the negotiating phrases This is the simplest game in this section and one of the most useful ones. Get groups of two to four students to deal out cards with one useful phrase on each one and then try to use those phrases during a roleplay negotiation. The person who has discarded most cards at the end of the negotiation wins the game. You’ll then need to test students’ memory of the phrases by getting them to brainstorm into categories like “Phrases for compromising”, perhaps with key words to help them. They can then move onto doing the same thing with names of functions or key words, as explained below. Negotiating functions card games Students are dealt some cards with the names of functions on them like “Insist” and “Soften position” and/ or “Yes”, “No” and “Maybe”. During the speaking activity they must do those things with phrases not yet used in the game to be able to discard those cards. The other people can give them the cards back if they repeated a phrase that someone had already said or what they said doesn’t match the card that they discarded. The person who has successfully discarded most cards when the teacher says “Stop” is the winner. You can also play this game without cutting up cards by students crossing “Yes” etc off a worksheet every time they successfully do that thing with original language. As with the coin games above, you can also play the opposite game of trying to ge
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 07:50:19 +0000
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